(_From Botticelli's painting, in the Borghese
Gallery, of the Madonna and Child with Angels._)

_A Prayer for the Followers of Ideal Beauty_ 29
(_With a pencil sketch of an angel, by Botticelli._)

_ILLUSTRATIONS_

1. _Angel--"Te Deum Laudamus," by Fra Angelico._ 12

2. _"The Annunciation"--by Botticelli._ 14

3. _"The Visitation" (From the picture in the series on
"The Life of the Virgin,") by Duerer._ 18

4. _"The Madonna of the Magnificat"--by Botticelli._ 20

5. _"The Madonna of the Pomegranate"--by Botticelli._ 22

6. _"The Madonna of the Rose Garden"--by Botticelli._ 24

7. _The Angel Crowned with a Jasmine Wreath--by Botticelli._ 26

8. _Pencil Sketch of an Angel--by Botticelli_. 28

[Illustration: _Te Deum Laudamus by Fra Angelico_]

THE ANGEL OF THOUGHT

(_Suggested by a Fra Angelico Angel_)

Angel of Thought, meseems God winged _thee_ so,
And crowned thine head with passion fine as flame,
And made thy lifted face too pure for shame,
With eyes and brow a mirror to His glow;--
And gave thy lips a golden trump, that, though
Long years have passed since other angels came
To work the mighty wonders of His name,--
In God's own name and man's, thyself shalt go
Forever on strong pinions to and fro,
And round the earth reverberating blow
The mute, world-shaking music of the mind;
That thou might'st make as naught all space and time,
And thrill in mystic oneness through mankind,
Yet dwell in each, inviolate, sublime.

[Illustration: _The Annunciation by Botticelli_]

ANNUNCIATION

(_From the picture by Botticelli_)

I

Kneeling in prayer, her spirit rapt above,
She meets with God, Who bendeth, brooding low,
In vast compassion humanward, and so,
There comes upon her life the power of Love:
Rising--behold! with pinions like a dove,
An angel with a rod where row on row
Of chaliced lilies spill supernal glow,--
Which all her thought to wonder mute doth move.
Then falls upon the rapture of her soul,
Dimly some vision of Gethsemane,
Athwart the Resurrection's shining goal,
And with uplifted hand she pleads as One
Shall pray in night of darkest agony,
"This cup remove,--yet, Lord, Thy Will be done."

ANNUNCIATION